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For the third straight year, Beechwood is headed to the Kentucky 1A state semifinals. The Tigers rolled over Kentucky Country Day Friday night at Edgar McNabb Field, 42-7.

Beechwood's rushing attack broke the game open in the third quarter when leading 14-7 senior Aiden Justice and junior James Davis each ran in 18-yard touchdowns just three minutes apart to push the Tigers' lead to 28-7. Justice led Beechwood's offense with 168 yards and a pair of touchdowns on 22 carries, while Davis added 112 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries. Senior Trevor Soward also finished with two touchdown carries to give the Tigers six total on the night.

"We just decided we were going to spread them out and try to run up the gut because their linebackers were going out on our receivers, so that just opened up the holes in the middle," Davis said. "This (win) means a lot to us. People doubted us and we're just proving them wrong."

Justice is in the midst of a brilliant season and postseason. He had four touchdowns, three rushing and one receiving, last week in the Tigers' win over Louisville Holy Cross.

"Our offensive staff has done a tremendous job and (offensive line coach) Bob Burnett has done a tremendous job with our big guys up front, but our kids are the ones that have to go out and make plays," Beechwood coach Noel Rash said. "Every week they seem to continue to get better and wow us a little bit. You have to run the ball in November, it's that simple. Tonight's (weather) was an anomaly. Mother nature is going to get us eventually and you have to be able to run the football."

After the two teams traded punts to start the game, Justice opened the scoring with 2:02 left in the first quarter with a 1-yard touchdown plunge. He carried nine times for 73 yards on the drive, including a 36-yard scamper to move the ball into KCD territory.

Kentucky Country Day tied the game with 3:07 left in the half when senior running back Ed Johnson capped a 10-play, 71-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run.

The Tigers fired right back. Junior quarterback Brayden Burch hit Daniel Mescher over the top of the Bearcats' defense for a 56-yard gain to set Beechwood up with 1st-and-goal from the 3. Trevor Soward walked into the endzone two plays later for the 1-yard score to put Beechwood in front at halftime, 14-7.

Mescher also had an interception on defense earlier in the quarter at the Beechwood 17 to stop a KCD drive.

Beechwood's defense was stellar in the second half. KCD's six possessions after intermission consisted of four punts and two turnovers on downs.

"We made two adjustments on defense at halftime," Rash said. "One of them didn't work and the other one did. (Their offensive system) is something you don't see all year, it's different than anything else you play against from a blocking standpoint, and they go foot-to-foot splits. That combination of things creates a different mindset with calling the defense and then our kids performing how we run our defense and it just took our kids a little bit to get used to."

Even following an interception by Burch late in the third quarter that kept the Tigers' defense out on the field with no rest, they came up with a key stop. Senior defensive end Dalton Everett was especially disruptive. His sack of KCD quarterback Jackson Diaz forced a turnover on downs at the Beechwood 37 following the interception.

"Dalton is lightning fast, he's lightning committed and he's lightning locked in to try and win a title," Rash said. "He's the guy, that at the end of the game, there's nothing left in him. He leaves everything on the field and so he deserves to have games like this."

Burch finished the game 7-of-10 for 113 yards.

After Justice and Davis built up Beechwood's lead in the third quarter, Soward and Davis finished the job in the fourth.

Soward broke free for a 20-yard touchdown with 10:45 to play, capping an eight-play, 63-yard drive. Davis followed on the next Beechwood drive with a 51-yard touchdown run up the middle to set the final score with 4:58 on the clock.